In January each year, there is an annual children’s conference for boys and girls aged from 5-12 years. Children from each parish spend 4-6 days at the COC Mission headquarters in Parkview, where they are fully accommodated. They have time of singing and praises, prayers and worship, education, preparation for future baptism for those who need it, play, discussions and workshops to probe and encourage their talents and gifts for the future.

In collaboration with the children’s parents, parish priests prepare the children for travel to the conference venue; they usually hire private microbuses with the aim of safer travel; the Mission pays for their return transport costs.

When coming to return the children to their home, the same microbuses collect youth for their biannual conference, which starts on the day of the children’s departure.

The conferences have become very popular and 2008 marks the tenth year for children and twelfth year for youth.

The spiritual nurturing of these gatherings is well appreciated by parents and other parishioners; most of the children who joined the early conferences are now participants in the youth conferences.

The children receive plenty of gifts from Santa Claus to carry home; many of the presents are useful for their schooling and daily living.

For the most recent conference, children were at Mission Headquarters from 29 December 2007- 1 January 2008. This year’s theme was “Love and Charity” with many stories from the Bible and Church tradition being told in multiple languages, including Sotho, Pedi, Xhosa, Zulu, Tsonga and English.

The youth conference, 1-7 January 2008, had the theme of “The Holy Spirit: For me, In me, Through me”-

*      If our target is the Holy Father, then our example is the Holy Son, and the One who gets us to follow the example to get there is the Holy Spirit  

*      The Holy Spirit is our Spiritual Fitness Instructor. He gets us fit and keeps us fit. So the message of the conference is KEEP F.I.T.

The youth themselves propagate the benefits of the conference to others; a substantial time is spent on learning about Church dogma, Bible studying, singing- praising, prayer and choir. Each parish fields a choir for a competition at the culmination of the conference and trophies are awarded with prizes for the most successful and the most improved. Highly sought after prizes have included guitars and electric keyboards. This year’s outright winner was the Saint Mary, Tembisa Choir.

Also, life education is an important conference facet: last conference focused on HIV/ AIDS/ sexually transmitted diseases, human social sexuality and domestic violence. The current conference looks at alcohol abuse.

The conferences are generally attended by parish priests, youth leaders, Sunday school teachers and quite a number of elder women who come to participate in meal preparations. Tsediso Maruping and Vela Khobe are the South African youth coordinators whose efforts contribute significantly to the success of the conferences.

A group of Australian Church servants, with the coordination of dedicated, Australian youth servant- Mrs Debbie Armanious, have been invited by His Grace since 2002 to significantly contribute to the facilitation of the biannual conferences in July and January- where their presence is an immense advantage, they also benefit greatly from the spiritual services and cultural exchange. They prepare for several months for each conference, carrying conference materials and Church assistance with them from Australia. They spend the rest of the month of January in revival activities with the branches, participating in the local activities of the youth in their own townships, studying their needs, and making future, collaborative plans for the benefit of the South African youth. They also enjoy the wealth of touristic opportunities that South Africa has to offer.

Included in the conference is the Christmas liturgy at the Saint Mark Cathedral; together with Egyptians, Ethiopians and Eritreans, South African youth rejoice in the birth of our Lord Jesus in a wonderful, multicultural celebration comprising multiple languages and traditions. Afterwards, an agape meal is shared by all and on the following morning, Christmas breakfast is served before conference participants return to their respective South African homes. 

Officials from the Egyptian Embassy, representing the government of Egypt abroad, usually come to pay their respects on the Christmas evening.